“Take a seat. The dead weight’s all gone now.”
Cordelia narrowed her eyes. “Ryuto? What’s going on?”
I shrugged, casting a glance at the now-cleared table strewn with maps. “Now we begin. The real strategy meeting.”
“The real strategy meeting?” Her voice spiked with confusion, verging on incredulity.
Ignoring her outburst, I leaned forward and pointed at the map. “Cordelia takes the north. Lilith covers the south. No arguments there, that’s solid.”
Cordelia gave a small nod, her expression unreadable. “Yeah.”
“And I’ll take the west,” I added plainly.
That seemed to click something in her brain. Her eyes lit up, and she clapped her hands together as the realization set in. “Ah, I get it now. That’s what this is about. Then yeah, that works. Makes sense, actually. You’re the fastest out of all of us, so once you’ve cleaned up your gate, you’ll be free to support the others.”
“Exactly. But the real issue… is the east.” I tapped that section on the map with my finger. “That’s where all the noble kids are, and their precious escorts—the academy instructors. Aside from us, it’s where the highest concentration of ‘regular’ firepower is positioned.”
Cordelia snorted in disbelief, the corners of her mouth twitching. “Calling those instructors ‘regular’ is kind of insulting, don’t you think? I mean, even at their weakest, they’re basically ex-veteran adventurers with magical specialization. Some of them were court mages before they retired. That’s not exactly normal.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Hmm? You okay, Cordelia?”
She blinked, then shook her head slowly as if to dismiss whatever thought had crossed her mind. “No, never mind. You’ve earned the right to say things like that. I know what you’re capable of.”
Then she glanced away and continued, almost sheepishly, “You speak with this strange kind of certainty… grounded in pure effort and earned confidence. Honestly, sorry. What you said caught me so off guard that it felt unreal. Anyway, what were we talking about again?”
Lilith, who had been watching from the sidelines with thinly veiled irritation, finally cut in with her usual deadpan tone. “We were discussing who’s going to defend which gate.”
Meanwhile, Koharu just sat there trembling, clearly overwhelmed by the entire situation. Sharing a room with Cordelia—the living legend, a true hero—seemed enough to throw her into a full nervous breakdown. She was visibly pale, mumbling, “Ah… Ah…” in a voice barely above a whisper.
I looked back at the map. “North, Cordelia. South, Lilith. I’ll take the west. That leaves the east, where, right now, the defenses are paper-thin. Just the instructors and a handful of special-class students.”
A heavy silence fell over the room, weighted with more than just strategy. We all knew what it meant to leave that front exposed.
After a moment of thought, I broke the stillness. “Hey, Cordelia.”
She looked up. “What?”
“If two Ogre Kings and an Ogre Emperor show up at the east gate… what happens?”
Cordelia pressed a hand to her chin and closed her eyes. It didn’t take long; she was already running through the simulations in her head. When her lids lifted, a single bead of sweat traced its way down her temple.
“Ten minutes. No, scratch that. They won’t even put up a fight. The defenders will panic and scatter like ants. The gate will fall in two minutes.”
Exactly what I thought. Cordelia had always been sharp. Her analysis was nearly identical to mine.
“And when that happens?” I asked, watching her closely.
Her reply came in a low, bitter murmur. “Looting. And… rape.”
Bingo.
Ogres were technically classified as magical beasts, but their lineage was tied to demi-humans, creatures like lycanthropes and beastfolk. There were crude seafarers’ tales about sailors using stingray parts for pleasure, and while half of them were bunk, they spoke to a darker truth. Lust was primal, and monsters weren’t always just monsters.
So yes, they’d take valuables. Food, gold, weapons. But they’d take women too. That much went without saying.
“Anyway, let’s not sugarcoat things.” I pointed at the map. “My gut tells me there’s more than one Ogre Emperor out there. And at least one of them is coming—maybe even more—from one of the gates. East, west, north, or south.”
Cordelia’s eyes flew open. “Wait, more than one?! Are you serious?”
Her jaw dropped. She slapped a hand over her mouth, trying to muffle the gasp.
Lilith’s voice sliced through the tension, dry as dust. “Why are you so surprised, Cordelia Allston?”
“W-What do you mean?”
“I mean, that was clearly stated in the report.”
“Well, yes,” Cordelia admitted, “but I assumed it was a mistake. A misidentification. The report only mentioned one. Multiple Emperors? That’s beyond insane. Just one of them qualifies as a full-on disaster-class threat. More than one would mean… This isn’t something a borderland outpost can handle. This is national extinction.”
Lilith, clearly annoyed, pressed further. “And what’s your point?”
“Huh?”
The Mage’s eyes narrowed, her words deliberate. “Ryuto is here. So, what if multiple Ogre Emperors show up? What’s the problem?”
Cordelia froze, her brows knitting together as she tried to untangle the full weight of Lilith’s words. Silence stretched between them, thick and unnerving, until at last she exhaled through her nose and spoke, voice taut with restrained tension.
“No, I understand,” she murmured, lowering her gaze as if trying to see through the table. “You and I couldn’t handle it. But him… Yeah. If it’s Ryuto, I don’t doubt he could. But if an Ogre Emperor is already in play, then what I’m truly afraid of isn’t that.”
Her words hung in the air like a guillotine. I met her eyes, and with a slow nod, finished the thought for her.
“The final stop in ogre evolution,” I said quietly. “The emergence of a Demon God.”
At that, Cordelia’s expression sharpened with chilling clarity. Lilith, seated nearby, simply placed a slender hand beneath her chin, her face unreadable as ever. In contrast, Koharu looked on helplessly, shifting nervously in her seat, her wide eyes darting between us like a trapped animal.
I leaned forward, fingers brushing the edge of the war map. “Why haven’t we launched a counteroffensive yet, Cordelia?”
She hesitated, then offered the obvious. “Because… we were waiting on reinforcements?”
“Exactly.” I let the confirmation land with intentional weight. “Though, as you already know, the odds of help arriving in time are next to zero.”
She frowned. “So?”
“There’s no doubt an Ogre Emperor is present,” I continued, voice calm but edged with iron. “But they’ve yet to attack. Why?”
Cordelia crossed her arms and tilted her head, trying to find the answer buried in the implications. “Because we held the western gate?” she ventured.
“Bingo,” I said with a tight smile. “From their point of view, that’s terrifying. They threw in a force led by an Ogre King, and it got wiped out. Fast.”
Lilith shifted slightly, her cool gaze unwavering. Cordelia, meanwhile, narrowed her eyes.
“Ryuto,” she said slowly, sensing the turn but not the destination, “you’re not answering the question. So what’s your point?”
I stared straight into her eyes. “They’re waiting for reinforcements, too.”
That landed harder than a sword stroke. Cordelia’s face went pale as the realization slammed into her.
“You don’t mean…”
“I do.” I nodded gravely. “Either more Ogre Emperors are inbound, or a Demon God is preparing to emerge. Maybe both.”
Cordelia’s eyes welled with tears, her voice cracking as she shouted, “That… That’s not possible! This… This is a Great Calamity!”
Lilith frowned, her tone soft but grave. “Believe me, Ryuto and I are deeply troubled by this. If it is a Great Calamity, we’d be contacting people like the Dragon King through our own channels already.”
Cordelia buried her face in her hands. “Then how can this be explained? The ogre hordes, the absurd number of Ogre Generals, multiple Ogre Kings, and an Ogre Emperor. And now, possibly a Demon God… None of this makes sense unless it’s a Great Calamity!”
Lilith folded her arms, her voice steady. “True, the ratio of Ogre Generals is abnormal. Multiple Ogre Kings in a single force is unprecedented. An Ogre Emperor, categorized as a Phantasmal Beast, is unheard of. And a Demon God? That’s pure myth.”
Cordelia’s voice quivered. “Then shouldn’t we just assume it is a Great Calamity?”
Ryuto and Lilith exchanged knowing glances. This was the crux.
Ryuto shrugged. “If it were… then ogres themselves would be anomalous. The whole premise would collapse.”
Cordelia looked up, eyebrows knitting. “What do you mean?”
Ryuto leaned forward. “Cordelia, what is the definition of a Great Calamity?”
She thought for a moment before replying, voice quiet, “It means the leader, or a central figure, of a species evolves into an unprecedented entity. Like the Goblin Emperor turning into an Ultimate Goblin, a wholly new form. A Demon God is historically confirmed for ogres, so it’s a valid evolution. And yes, the Calamity forces an entire race to jump one tier up in power.”
Ryuto nodded. Lilith pressed her lips together.
Cordelia frowned. “But even that doesn’t add up. Ogres themselves shouldn’t just keep existing… they’d all evolve into Ogre Generals at minimum.”
Lilith exhaled. “Which is why we believe this is man-made.”
At that, Cordelia froze, horror dawning on her. “You’re saying… humans are creating Demon God-level monsters!?”
Ryuto held up a hand. “It’s possible. But it might not be true.”
Cordelia’s voice flared. “Then what the hell does that mean?!”
Ryuto met her eyes. “We’re running through a few hypotheses. I’ve already got leads, but nothing definitive yet. If I had the answers, I wouldn’t be wrestling with this either, Cordelia.”